Pandigital Planet, Nova and Star budget tablet trio revealed

Pandigital has outed a trio of new Android tablets, as well as the promise of a high-end model by the end of the quarter. The Pandigital Planet, Nova and Star will all hit shelves this month, each toting a 7-inch touchscreen – 800 x 480 on the Star; 800 x 600 on the Planet and Nova), WiFi, Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore app preloaded, and both WiFi and HDMI connectivity.

Unfortunately, as the $159 starting price might suggest, we’re not looking at Honeycomb here. Instead, the Planet and Star each run Android 2.2 Froyo, while the Nova steps up to 2.3 Gingerbread. Pandigital tells us that future firmware updates are in the pipeline, but it’s unclear whether that will ever include a step up to Google’s tablet-centric Android branch.

Both the Planet and Star have 2GB of integrated memory, while the Nova doubles that to 4GB; there’s a microSD card slot and USB On-The-Go support, though with a mini USB port you’ll need an adapter if you want to plug in a regular thumb-drive or peripherals. Pandigital has struck a deal with GetJar to include the software download store on all three models – there’s no official Android Market access, at least until the hacks arrive – and there are apps for email, browser, the camera (rear on all models; front-facing on the Star) for stills and video and the OfficeSuite Viewer for opening documents.

The Pandigital Planet (R70A200) is on sale today for $189, while the Pandigital Nova (R70F400/ R70F452) will arrive this week for $189. The Pandigital Star (R70B200) will follow on in mid-August for $159. Meanwhile, Pandigital is promising a “flagship” tablet for September, though details won’t be released until next month.